We are so grateful to the dedication of these volunteers and the work they do throughout the nesting season and year-round, walking trails, counting eggs and young, periodically cleaning out the boxes, and all around caring for the miles of nest box trails throughout Vermilion County.
Attention volunteers: It’s that time of year again. If you have not yet turned in your 2018 data, please do so soon. See the letter below from our volunteer coordinator, Lee Solter, for more information.
Greetings Bluebird Monitors!
Another nesting season has come and gone and the results sent in so far suggest a good year for bluebirds. I am looking forward to receiving the remaining reports so that we will have a full data set to send to the East Central Illinois Bluebird Society.
I want to thank all of you for your enthusiasm, dedication and work to preserve bluebird populations and to monitor their progress. You have braved wet and chilly days in the spring and blazing sun in the summer to ensure that we have this important information. Happily, it becomes a bit “addictive” to follow the progress in the nests and we find ourselves developing some parental protectiveness about our little charges. We also have the amazing good fortune to deeply experience the flow of the seasons and be in closer touch with the environment in our yards and field sites.
I also want to thank Sue Smith and Cheryl Vergin for their advice and training to collate the annual bluebird data, as well as the opportunity to be in touch with all of you!
As a final reminder, at minimum, reports need to contain the total number of bluebirds fledged and the total number of boxes that you monitored. Many of you are also monitoring other species that fledged from your boxes and I will try to collate this information to send to you, also.
All remaining reports can be sent to this email address (lsolter@illinois.edu) or via mail:
Lee Solter
508 W. Vermont Ave.
Urbana, IL 61801
I’m also happy to take reports via telephone: 217-417-0262. Simply leave a voice message with your name and the data or let me know who you are and your phone number and I can return your call.
Again, many thanks for your participation and I hope to work with you again in the spring!
Sincerely,
Lee Solter
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